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ChinaScience

China enters hi-tech imaging race with new ‘core’ electron microscope for semiconductor industry

  • Guangzhou-based lab unveils equipment with high hopes of replacing imports, report says
  • The instruments are one of 35 ‘choke point’ technologies the country aims to master

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Guangzhou-based Bioland Laboratory has been spearheading the development of the electron microscope technology. Photo: Weibo/ @ZEALER
Amber Wangin Beijing
A Chinese research laboratory has developed its own version of a “choke point” technology critical to the semiconductor industry, opening the way for domestic production, according to state media.
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State-run Science and Technology Daily reported on Saturday that the Guangzhou-based research institute Bioland Laboratory had built the country’s first transmission electron microscope, called the TH-F120.

The report said China had now mastered the “core technologies” for the microscopes and could mass produce the machines, allowing the country to “break” its complete dependence on imports.

The advance could give strong support to cutting-edge scientific and industrial areas such as materials science, life sciences and semiconductors, it added.

It also reflected China’s rapid advancement in key technologies in the face of fierce international competition and US curbs.

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The microscopes send a beam of electrons through an extremely thin specimen to generate a high-resolution image, a technique that is central to developing new nanostructured semiconductor materials, according to AZoNano, a technology news site.

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